Fame & Fortune: Crime writer Ian Rankin, 53, who has sold more than
20m books, opens up on his personal finances

How did your childhood influence your work ethic and attitude to money?

Greatly. I grew up in a family that was working class, which taught me to be careful with money.

My father worked in a grocery store. When the grocery chain went into administration he eventually got a job in the naval dockyard in an office preparing the charts for the boats and the submarines before they headed out.

My mother worked in a school canteen – then worked in the canteen of a chicken factory. Every Friday the pay packet money would be allocated to cover bills.

I have a strong work ethic yet I'm incredibly lazy as well. The problem with being a writer is that everything you do can be called research. Sitting in the pub is research. Reading the newspaper can be research.

I will put off the evil hour when I start writing for as long as I possibly can.

Has there been a time in your life when you didn't know how you were going to pay the bills?

Between 1990 and 1996 we lived in rural France. My wife had suggested we make the move from London as the cost of living in the capital was prohibitive and my earnings back then from writing were low. But she encouraged me to give it a go, so I went full-time. Jack was born in 1992, Miranda didn't have a job, and I just knew that what I was earning wasn't enough to support the family. I began to have panic attacks and grew very restless and very fretful about the whole business. Things were tight, but we cut our cloth accordingly.

When did you realise that you were doing very well out of writing?

It was quite late on. Around 1999, when we were living in Edinburgh and had just managed to buy our first flat, a royalty statement for the backlist (all the Rebus novels I had done before, which hadn't been making very much money up to that point) arrived at home giving a sum of six figures. Neither my wife nor myself could quite believe it but the agent confirmed the figure, so suddenly the penny dropped – the Rebus novels had just become popular.

It took a good 12-14 years, and many books, before the money became a happy factor of my writing career. If you think, my first novel was published back in 1986 and for that I had been given an advance of the grand sum of £200. I was pretty much 40 or in my early forties before I earned my first million.

One list of rich authors has you down as being worth £25m – is that an accurate figure?

Hasn't someone just sat in the pub and made that up? Where do they get their figures from? I have no idea where they get that figure. I doubt I am worth even half of that.

Have film and television rights been an important part of your income?

No. Everyone thinks that the way to get rich quick as a writer is to get your material "optioned" for television or film. But in the UK there is very little money for that.

Does money motivate you to write or is it a by-product of being creative?

I never started writing thinking I would make a lot of money out of it. Most of the writers I knew in the early days had day jobs. When I started making a bit of money from it that was nice. When it became a full-time occupation that was lovely. So the money was a bonus, really.

Now, as a successful author, the bad news is that having been successful financially previously does not make the books any easier to write. Once you have become a No 1 bestseller then the pressure is for the next book to be a No 1 bestseller. Or at least to sell more copies than the previous book.

Once you have got to a level of sales you kind of reach a plateau and pretty much the only place you are going to go is down, eventually. One can only hope that a nice long leisurely stay on the plateau is possible.

What was your best business decision or best buy?

The Sony Vaio laptop computer, which I think I bought in 1997, and on which I've written 16 novels so far. It has paid its way many times over. I paid about £300 for it.

And what has been your worst business decision?

I have possibly thought that becoming a limited company wasn't a great idea. My accountant persuaded me to go down that route. It is fine but it means more meetings, more bureaucracy, more rigmarole, and more papers to fill in.

Are you more of a saver or a spender?

I think I am a bit of both. I don't spend it freely and I'm very grateful for it, as I know both my parents struggled to make ends meet.

I am more relaxed now about spending money. I used to be someone who used to think twice at taking a taxi somewhere if you could walk the same distance in 45 minutes. My wife and I recently booked ourselves on to first-class flights for a holiday to South Africa, which was a nice luxury. We like to buy art but that is as a pleasure rather than an investment – 20th century Scottish artists I like are Robin Philipson and Alison Watt – I wouldn't spend more than £10,000-20,000 on a painting.

Are you naturally good with money or do you have to work at it?

Naturally good. When I was at university, which was at a time when you got paid £300 a term to go, I could save money out of that sum.

What's been the most difficult lesson you've learnt about money or business?

The cliché that money doesn't solve all your problems. I would give all the money I have so that my son Kit didn't have the disability that he has got. (Ian's youngest son, Kit, now 19, has Angelman syndrome and is severely disabled.)

Do you prefer to pay by card or cash?

I use debit or credit cards when necessary but I prefer writing cheques out at home to pay bills. I always pay off the credit card bill on time.

We bank with the Co-operative because we wanted a bank as ethical as possible. I carry between £50 and £100 on me. I'm currently keeping a close eye on the situation with the Co-operative buy-out to see if it maintains its integrity.

When it says it will still be an ethical bank, that is not how hedge funds make their money – they don't make their money by being ethical.

Do you have a personal pension or a long-term financial strategy?

I have got a pension, which my accountant arranged with various advisers and pension fund managers. That will kick in when I am 55. I am very grateful for it, as many writers don't have one.

What are your financial priorities for the next five to 10 years?

I'll be in a position to answer that after I have taken time out next year. I am having a year off from writing to reassess what I am doing.

Are you a good tipper?

Pretty good. I balk at paying 25pc where that is expected; the usual 10pc-15pc is fine. I might tip even if the service is bad, as I am very British, and then say something about it on Twitter.

Do you invest in stocks and shares? Or how do you invest?

Not hugely. We have a stocks and shares portfolio and we have VCTs [venture capital trusts]. It doesn't consume me. I'm not looking at the financial pages every day wondering how this or that company is doing. We've chosen investments that are as ethical and low risk as possible.

If there was one thing you could change about the financial world, what would it be?

I would make it much tougher for the fat cats to avoid tax, both individuals and corporations.

Do you bank online?

My wife does, and she is fine with it, but I don't trust the internet.

You hear of so many scams around. My accountant recently received an email that appeared to be from me, but it was actually from a scammer, with a bogus money transfer request.

Does money make you happy?

Not necessarily, but certainly a lack of money can cause stress and unhappiness.

'Saints of the Shadow Bible' by Ian Rankin is published by Orion Books at £18.99. For more details of his other books visit ianrankin.net